The prolific musician is constantly creating or thinking about their next creation. Even when they’re doing other activities, their mind is shaping their next creation.
A key change I’ve made in my life is transitioning from a consumption mindset to a creation mindset. This has permeated in just about every aspect of my life including health, well being, finances, and minimalism. However, I’m going to focus on the topic as it relates to music and entertainment. In our lives, almost every external force is pushing us to consume. There are ads telling you to watch this show. To listen to this playlist. To buy this, then you’ll be happy. Culturally as well, we talk to our friends about the newest TV show, our new car, wearing our new clothes. Everything around us naturally pushes us to consume and want more. There is a promise behind all of this pushing and advertising that happiness can be found through having the resources to get more.
How many forces around you on a daily basis encourage you to create more? For me, it’s only really my job, which I’m expected to produce in. There’s nobody around me saying, “hey – why don’t you sit down and practice piano more?” Or “hey you should probably finish that song you care about a lot by Friday!”. In my life, and I imagine for many readers of this, motivation to create must come almost fully within. If you’re still reading, then chances are you have a fire inside of you that’s telling you to create. In order to follow that inner voice it is necessary to cut through a sea of voices and pressures to simply consume – actions that benefit others – and start to create and focus your time and resources on what you think is important.
As it relates to music, the biggest consumption vs. creation adjustment I’ve made to my life has been replacing TV and videogame time with music production time. I didn’t truly understand how much free time I previously had until I became a parent. The intense scarcity of time forced me to reflect upon the activities I really valued. Breaks are still necessary and important throughout the process, and breaks can still be productive. However, I find that I feel happier and more fulfilled in the long run when I spend my extra free time creating rather than binging Netflix or other activities that would absorb large amounts of mindless time previously.
Consuming can be productive even when you’re in an overall creative mindset. Breaks are necessary to avoid burnout. And taking breaks and recovering mentally can be productive on several levels. One thing musicians can do to utilize downtime productively is active listening. Active listening is when a listener tunes into specific parts of music in order to learn.
For example, when I began producing music I came in as a strong melodic writer but a weak rhythmic writer. I had played melodic instruments like sax and guitar my whole life, but never drums or percussion. As a result, the drum parts I wrote in my first songs were incredibly boring and basic. I knew this was my biggest weakness in writing, but I was determined at that stage to make my weaknesses my strengths through hard work. I’m always learning in the world of music, but at the beginner stages of music production I had limited skills and limited budget, so learning everything I could and being a knowledge sponge was my top priority. So I began active listening to drum parts. When I listened to music I would listen intently to the drums. What was the snare like? When did they do kicks? What were the hi hat patterns? When do fills happen, and how busy are they in different genres and parts of the track? When I went to see live music I would stare at the drummer to see what they were doing when. I imagined myself as the drummer. When I went back home to write music I would pretend to be that drummer and try writing beats in that style. I began writing drum parts first before any melodic writing and focusing on making them be able to stand on their own. Over time, writing drum grooves has become one of my strongest areas. Active listening allowed me to utilize down time or travel time to build a skill.
Creative minded individuals sometimes carry around a notebook or some other way to record their ideas when not at their work station or studio. Stand up comedians are known for doing this. When they think of a funny joke, they’ll immediately pull out their notepad and write it down. Musicians also do this. It’s a highly effective way for the prolific musician to capture ideas they have when their mind is left to wander, or when they’re productively procrastinating.
Scott Stapp from the 90s rock band Creed famously utilized a notepad to quickly document his ideas for one of Creeds most famous songs, My Own Prison. This is the track that catapulted the band into super stardom. I also had it playing on repeat as a teen! Stapp said that he had a very vivid dream one night. He woke up in the middle of the night and began writing in a notepad that he kept next to the bed. Most of the song came out on paper in that stream of consciousness session in the middle of some otherwise random night. When he woke up in the morning he had forgotten he’d even written it until he looked in his notebook. This story highlights several key skills used by prolific musicians. First of all, he utilized down time for creative thinking. In fact, the most ‘down’ downtime that exists, our sleep! Then when he awoke and the idea was fresh in his mind, he had the motivation to act on it. Instead of rolling over and going back to sleep in his cozy bed, he sprung into action to document the creative idea. If he had simply gone back to sleep, which is what most of us would’ve done, the song would not have been created and the dream would have been forgotten.
Lastly, he had prepared the tools he needed in advance next to his bed. He planned in advance to be able to write down his ideas at any time, including when in bed. He set the materials necessary on his nightstand and remembered they were there at the moment when creativity sparked.
If you’re a creative minded person, which, if you’ve been reading this far you likely are; then you’ve probably had countless ideas on your head that have never made it to the final step of creation. If you log your creative ideas during your otherwise down time, then right when you sit down at your workstation you can begin creating. There’s no, “where I do even start? What should I do?”. You’ll already have a host of creative ideas to execute upon from other points in time.
Utilizing down time resulted in a paradigm shift in how I view creativity and my creative output. I’m writing this sentence as I ride the DC metro to my day job. Nearly all of this content has been written while I’m in transit or on my exercise bike. What are you capable of if you utilize your down time consistently?
Musical Motivation 